


Party Tricks

by peppermint_tea



Category: The Loud House (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-25
Packaged: 2018-12-31 11:37:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12131622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peppermint_tea/pseuds/peppermint_tea
Summary: It's been a week since Maggie's birthday party and she can't seem to keep one particular performer out of her head. Thankfully, Maggie also has an improbable plan... a way to get another chance to meet, and friends willing to help out with it.And so, one day, Luan Loud gets a strange phone call...(Luaggie, other character tags to be added as they become relevant)





	1. Chapter 1

Luan was editing some footage when the phone rang. Or, to be more accurate, she was locked in mortal combat with her video editor, trying to produce comedy gold while the forces of technology did its best to ruin it all.

Honestly, the call came as kind of a relief. The battle wasn't going so well.

"Funny Business Inc.," she answered brightly, "where your fun is our business!"

There was dead silence on the other end of the line.

"Hello?" Luan tried again. She frowned, listening very carefully. She thought she could hear breathing, but no one was saying anything.

"Look, if this was supposed to be a prank, it's not a very good one," Luan announced. "You're supposed to ask if my refrigerator's running, or if I've got Prince Albert in a can." She paused. "Which now that I think about it, I don't even understand what Prince Albert in a can _is_. Do you happen to know?"

The other person didn't answer.

"Guess not. Maybe it used to make more sense a long time ago? Sometimes coming up with new jokes can be a _royal_ pain." She giggled. "Get it?"

There was a click and then a dial tone. "Hmph," she said. "Some people wouldn't know comedy if it called them up to say hi."

Still, it was enough of a distraction for her to put off working on her videos and go down a Wikipedia rabbit hole. At least until the phone rang again, only a minute or two later.

"Funny Business Inc.," she said, more distracted this time, "where your fun is our business."

When she just heard silence on the other side again, her face lit up.

"Oh good! Okay, so, I looked up the Prince Albert thing and it's apparently a kind of tobacco? But gosh, it's not anything I've ever heard of. I guess you could say that this particular joke has really gone up in _smoke_!"

She paused, listening really hard.

"Aw, I thought that one would get a chuckle at least. Sorry, but smoking is bad for you, and I don't really know much about it. I mean there was that one time Lincoln tried to convince Mom and Dad to let him get a vape pen for some reason, but they said no and then we teased him about it mercilessly for like a month. Still, hold on, I bet I can come up with something better. Maybe—"

The dial tone beeped in her ear.

"Darn," she said. She waited, staring at the phone.

Of course, it was the instant that she gave up and turned back to her computer that it rang again.

Eagerly, she picked up the receiver and began talking. "Hey Prince! Okay, I think I've got a couple that will take your breath away. Pipe down because these will really make you light up!"

"Uhh…" a female voice said. "Is this Funny Business Inc.?"

"Dang it!" Luan felt heat rush to her cheeks. "I mean, uh, yes, sorry! Funny Business Inc., where your fun is our business!"

There was silence for a moment, and then the voice spoke up again. Whoever it was, they sounded pretty young to Luan. "Right. I wanted to see if uh… You were available for a birthday party?"

"Of course!" Luan said, hurriedly rummaging through her desk for her calendar. "What day would that be?"

"Oh, right." The woman on the other end of the line pitched her voice down low, talking to someone else in a conversation of furious whispers that Luan couldn't make out.

Luan paused, waiting.

"The twenty-third?"

Luan frowned. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm all booked for then."

"How about the week before or the week after? What dates are you available?"

"Huh? I'm happy to work with you, but it's a birthday party, right? Usually, don't you need it to be on…"

"Ha ha what I meant to say is that I got the date wrong, it's actually next Sunday."

"Oh." Luan scanned through her calendar again. "I've got a prior commitment then, too, but Lincoln has been doing pretty well on his own. Hmm. Yes, Funny Business Inc. can definitely serve your party needs! I'll just need to know—"

"No!"

Luan halted, taken aback.

The voice on the other side of the line sounded a bit strained. "Uh, I mean, we uh, saw this one girl perform as a mime at a birthday party for one of my friends…"

Whispers.

" _friendsss's_ daughter. And it was pretty alright."

More whispers, louder and argumentative this time.

"I mean, it was really amazingly stupendous, and so we wanted to make sure we got the very best for our, uh…" The woman paused. "Daughter?"

Even more whispers, until Luan heard the person on the other end say very clearly, "Look, do _you_ want to talk to her?"

"Uh," Luan said, uncertainly. "Is this a bad time? Do you want to call back?"

"No, no, it's fine," the woman said. "Just, um, still working out some details. Party planning, huh?"

"Oh, I definitely understand." Luan glanced at her calendar again. "I think I could— er… I mean 'the Funny Business Inc. Performer' that you requested would be available next Saturday afternoon, if that helps?"

There was a brief pause, and the murmur of a quiet conversation, though less heated this time. "That would be perfect. It would be at Ketcham Park, around… 3:00PM?"

Luan started scribbling down the details. "Great, and what's the birthday girl's name?"

"Uh."

The silence stretched out uncomfortably long.

"Griselda?"

Luan could _swear_ she heard a _thwap_ sound on the other end of the phone.

"Ooookay," Luan said. "And how old is she?"

"Thirteen?" the voice said, sounding pretty unsure.

Luan's eyebrow kept raising on its own for some reason, but she kept writing, going through the standard checklist. "And is there a theme to the party or anything?"

"What?"

"Oh, you know, like sometimes a party is pirate-themed, or dinosaurs, or princesses."

There was a moment of contemplation, and snickering. "Sure," they said dryly, "the theme is lesbians."

This time the _thwap_ was loud and unmistakable. And Luan heard an "Ow!" too.

"I'm not certain I caught that," Luan said. "What was the theme again?"

"Thespians," the voice said. "She's a big drama geek, it's a Shakespeare thing. I guess."

Luan let out an awkward chuckle. "Oh, of course. We can work with that. As for payment, it's normally $100 for a three-hour party, but it's $20 off if there was a referral. You heard of Funny Business Inc. through someone else, is that right?"

"Uhh… Nope!"

"But you just said that there was another party where—"

"Ha ha, you must be mistaken."

Luan cocked her head to the side. "Okay, uh, I'll go ahead and give you the referral rate anyways. But it's still half up front and half at the end of the party. Sound good?"

The voice was pitched low again, but Luan could hear, "You're seriously going to pay—" before more whispered arguments. "Yes, that sounds great," the voice finally said, sounding tired.

"Perfect." Luan looked over her notes "Oh, silly me! I don't think I got _your_ name."

The dial tone beeped at her. They had hung up.

Luan sat the phone back down, and stared at it, her brow furrowed. She was still sitting and thinking when Luna walked in a few minutes later.

"Hey dude! Just book another gig?"

"Mmmmaybe?" Luan glanced at her notes, and went ahead and penciled the party into the calendar. "But I can't help but feel like I'm getting pranked somehow."

Luna climbed up on her bed and settled in, strumming her guitar. "Oh yeah? It's all cool, sis. Don't fear the prankster! I know from experience that anyone messing with you is in for trouble."

Luan stood up. "You're right! I just need to be prepared. And you know what that means…" She raised one finger high, striking a dramatic pose. "It's time to go find some Prince Albert in a can!"

"That's the spirit!" As Luan marched out of the room, Luna blinked. "Wait, what? I don't get it."

 

 

* * *

 

 

When Alyssa hung up the phone, Maggie had her face buried in her hands.

"This is a disaster," Maggie said. "Oh my god."

Alyssa rolled her eyes. "It's your stupid plan."

"Yeah, but you're the one who messed it all up!"

"Oh, like you did soooo much better when you tried to call."

Maggie just let out a long groan.

Alyssa looked at her friend, the annoyance fading as she saw how miserable Maggie looked. Finally, she sighed and walked over, putting one arm across Maggie's shoulders. "C'mon, it's gonna be fine."

"Huge disaster," Maggie repeated. "Infinite embarrassment. She's going to hate me forever."

Alyssa grinned. "Minor disaster, significant embarrassment, and no, she'll find it cute, I bet."

Maggie, finally lowered her hands, her eyes peeking out suspiciously. "You really think so?"

"Maggie, this whole plan is unbelievably corny. But you didn't have to listen to the jokes she was trying out at the beginning there. I think corny will be fine."

Maggie let out a long sigh, but she looked a little more optimistic. Alyssa had learned to interpret the various kinds of frowns that Maggie had, and this was one of the good ones.

"There's just, uh, one other thing."

"Yeah?" Maggie said.

"We have to plan an entire party by this weekend."

Silence stretched out between the two of them.

"Dang it," Maggie groaned, slapping her hands over her face again.


	2. Chapter 2

The good news was that Maggie did have friends she could enlist in the party-planning process.

The bad news was that they weren't particularly _good_ at it.

That's how Maggie found herself freaking out in the middle of Ketcham Park about a half hour before the party was scheduled to begin.

She took a deep breath, trying to suppress her panic as she took stock of the situation. Alyssa, Xander, and Cindy were lined up in front of their picnic table, looking varying degrees of bored and aloof as Maggie marched back and forth.

"Okay," she finally said, "the decorations are pretty good."

That had been Alyssa's job. She was the one reliable one. There were balloons, and they did balloon things, which is to say, they floated. A+ work. Plus, Alyssa had printed out a banner saying "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRISELDA!" and hung it up between two trees. That was practically showing off.

"But I don't get the point of those." Maggie pointed up to where several paper bats and spiders were also hanging from the tree branches. "Isn't that off-theme?"

Alyssa shrugged. "It's _my_ fake birthday," she said. "I like bats and spiders."

Maggie rolled her eyes. "Whatever, _Griselda_."

Yes, Alyssa's contributions she could work with. But everything else?

Disaster.

Maggie had asked Xander to figure out some kind of dumb birthday party activity to have. He had nodded solemnly at her request. Which she had taken as good a sign as she was going to get from him. How hard could it be to have pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey or like a piñata or something? You know, simple stuff.

Instead, she was left staring at an fully-inflated Deluxe Princess Pony (TM) Bouncy Castle that barely fit in the park. The little kids who played in the park in the afternoons had already started lining up in the hopes of getting inside.

Maggie glared at it, like if she focused hard enough she could cause it to pop and deflate. "You realize this is supposed to be a party for a thirteen-year-old girl, right? Not _eight-year-olds_."

Xander shrugged. She couldn't see his eyes under his hair, and his expression was as blank as always.

"Where did you even get that?"

He shrugged again.

"Augh!" Maggie groaned. "And _you_!" She whirled around to face Cindy. Cindy was a total flake. And so Cindy had an easy job too: to bring a birthday cake.

Cindy glared back, crossing her arms. "People can have cupcakes for a birthday party," she insisted. "It's a thing."

Maggie pointed at the table in accusation. On a plate sat a single, sad cupcake, with a solitary candle on top.

"So my brothers might have eaten most of them," she said. "Big deal. It's good enough."

"It's _not_ good enough! She's going to see right through this. She's going to think…" Maggie paused, trying to figure out what Luan _would_ think.

"That this is all insane?" Cindy said. "That this is a ridiculously overelaborate plot just to get another chance to talk to some girl that you barely know?"

Yeah, that seemed about right. Xander nodded too.

Maggie turned to Alyssa, desperate for a little reassurance. But Alyssa was glancing up at the banner again, an uncertain grimace on her face. Cindy's words had apparently gotten to her, too.

Maggie's stomach suddenly did a somersault. "I've made a huge mistake," she whispered.

Alyssa looked back at her, biting her lip. "Maybe we can just call this off? If we contact her and cancel, we might even be able to—"

"Hello?" a cheerful voice called out. "Is this the party?"

Luan Loud had arrived, pulling behind her a red wagon full of comedy props. Cindy took one look at her and her eyebrows shot up so high they threatened to jump off her face.

Luan wasn't in her mime outfit. No, she was dressed ridiculously, in some kind of floppy feathered hat and puffy tunic and _pantaloons_.

And Maggie realized to her horror that even in that getup, Luan was still _incredibly cute_.

Alyssa took one look at Maggie's frozen expression and smoothly stepped in. "Yes! I'm Griselda, and my mom is uh… busy with some things but she said to give you this for the first half of your fee." She handed an envelope to Luan.

"Happy birthday!" Luan said, smiling. She glanced around, seeing only the four tweens. "Uh, I guess I'm early, huh? I'll just start getting set up while we wait for everyone else to arrive."

"Oh, no. It's just us four." Alyssa grinned widely. "I don't have many friends! Ha ha."

"Ooooh-kay," Luan said, her expression wavering between sympathy and puzzlement. She took another look around, noticing Maggie. "Oh, hey! Didn't you just have your birthday recently too?"

Maggie stared back, wide-eyed. "Yrpxh," she said, eloquently.

"Oh," Alyssa said, resting one hand on Maggie's shoulder. "This is Maggie! She's a big fan— ow!"

Maggie had recovered enough to elbow her in the stomach.

Luan glanced between the two of them, confusion clear on her face. "I.. think I'm just gonna go ahead and get my stuff set up, then."

Maggie stayed frozen until Luan had pulled her wagon over in the shade of some trees. Then she buried her face in her hands.

"Well, I guess we're doing this now after all," Cindy said. "Don't be such a drama queen, I'm sure it'll be fine."

 

 

* * *

 

 

As it turned out, Maggie didn't have to worry about talking directly to Luan after all. Because she had to do her performance first. And Luan's performance was considerably different than the one she had put on at Maggie's party.

To be precise, it was a one-woman show entitled 'Hamlet and Egglet.'

And it was approximately as long as the original Shakespearian play.

When she had started, several other kids and park patrons had gathered around to sit on the grass and watch as Luan climbed up on the picnic table to use it as an impromptu stage. She was really giving it her all: projecting her voice, making grand gestures, and striking dramatic poses.

But by Act III, around an hour and a half in, not much of an audience was left. Even Xander had wandered off, and was currently silently bouncing in the center of the inflatable castle.

That left just Maggie, Cindy, and Alyssa were still watching, and only if you used a particularly generous definition of the word 'watching.' Alyssa was glued to her phone, not even bothering to look up. Cindy had fallen asleep, given the soft snoring that Maggie could hear.

Maggie couldn't help but watch though, as Luan emoted and joked and occasionally did cartwheels.

"Alas, poor Yorick!" Luan said, holding up a surprisingly realistic-looking skull. "I knew him well. And now I guess I know him when he's not doing so well. Either way, he's kind of a bonehead, huh?" She gave her meager audience a big, exaggerated wink.

Maggie sat with her knees pulled up to her chest, still staring at Luan.

Luan pulled out a brown hairpiece, setting it on the skull. "Toupee?" she asked with a flourish, before pulling it back off again. "Or not toupee? That is the question!"

Even Alyssa looked up at that, turning to Maggie and making a face. Maggie ignored her, and Alyssa rolled her eyes, breathing out a sigh.

It only got more convoluted from there, through Acts IV and V. Somehow, in the end, Luan's play devolved into an extensive sword-fight sequence, which was kind of impressive given that it still only had one cast member.

But then, almost a full three hours after the start of the play, they reached the end.

Luan, still sweating and breathing heavily from all the jumping around and stabbing she had been doing, stared straight forward, paused for dramatic emphasis, and the announced "The Aristocrats!" as loud as she could. It did startle Cindy awake again. Even Xander wandered over again from the bouncy castle.

Silence fell on the park. And then Maggie began clapping, hesitantly.

No one else joined in.

Still, for some reason, Luan was grinning madly, taking bow after bow.

Cindy stood up. She rolled her head around, her neck popping. Then she raised one finger, opening and closing her mouth as she searched for the right words. Finally, she spoke. "That was the worst thing that I have ever experienced in my entire life, and I once took my little brother to a Blarney the Dinosaur concert. I don't even know where to begin in explaining how bad that was. I'm going home."

Maggie leapt to her feet. "It was good," she growled out.

"Did you fall and hit your head or something?" Cindy shook her head. "The mime thing at your party? Sure, that was genius. But this… this was a _travesty_."

"I think it's pronounced 'tragedy!'" Luan chirped out. "Get it?"

Cindy ignored her. "Alyssa, back me up here."

Alyssa winced, not meeting Maggie's eyes. "Sorry, but yeah. That was pretty bad."

"Xander?" Cindy asked.

He nodded vigorously.

"I cannot believe you would pay a _cent_ for a performance like this, Maggie. I—"

Cindy caught sight the frozen expression on Maggie's face and realized what she had said.

"Uh. Oops."

A moment of awkward silence stretched out.

"Excuse me…" Luan said quietly. "Does anyone want to tell me what's going on?"

Alyssa hopped up, waving her hands frantically. "Ha ha, what? Nothing's going on."

"Really? Cause I'm pretty sure she just called you Alyssa, not Griselda." Luan crossed her arms. "And your friend over there is eating your birthday cake."

Xander looked up. He was halfway through the cupcake. He shrugged.

"And this is the first birthday party I've seen without any presents."

Alyssa slapped her forehead. "I _knew_ we had forgotten something!"

"So…" Luan said. "Who wants to explain?"

Xander, Alyssa, and Cindy all shared a look. Then they turned to Maggie, as if in unspoken agreement.

Maggie swallowed.

Everyone was looking at her now.

And then she ran away.


	3. Chapter 3

It took Luan a long time to find Maggie.

In fact, she was about to give up and go home when she saw a couple of kids run away from the bouncy castle, screaming about it being haunted by a scary ghost. And when Luan peeked in to investigate, that's when she found the dark-haired girl, sitting curled up in the corner, glaring daggers straight forward with a frown frozen on her face.

Maggie didn't move at all as Luan awkwardly stumbled through the bounce house—she figured boinging her way over would be a little inappropriate for the moment, but it was surprisingly hard to walk normally. 

But finally Luan wound up awkwardly sitting next to Maggie, looking forward too as she tried to figure out what to say.

After a few minutes of contemplation and no sign that Maggie even recognized her presence, Luan cleared her throat. "Boy, you really _bounced_ out of there! Don't you think you might have _jumped_ to conclusions?" She giggled. "Get it?"

Maggie didn't answer.

"Sorry," Luan mumbled. She let out a sigh. "What I mean to say is… I talked to Alyssa. Or was it Griselda? The blonde friend of yours, you know, right? Yeah, of course, you would know… Sorry, I'm rambling. The point is that she told me everything."

"She did _what_?" Maggie finally spoke up, her voice sounding harsh and raspy. She was staring at Luan now, her eyes wide and her mouth twisted up even more than before. "Wh-what did she say?"

Of course, Alyssa hadn't wanted to say anything at all. It had taken Luan a lot of convincing to get solid answers out of her, but Maggie didn't need to know that. Eventually, Alyssa had explained that Maggie had really enjoyed her performance and wished that she had an opportunity to see if they could be friends. Which had seemed a little extreme to Luan, but not anything _crazy_.

Luan let out a hum as she tried to figure out the right words to say to sum that up. "She explained why you arranged for the party," she finally said.

"And you're not mad?"

"Of course not. It's kind of flattering, actually." Luan's smile for herself was only a little sad. It wasn't the first time someone had thought she was funny and wanted to be friends, but then most people also tended to change their minds after being around her for a while.

When Luan glanced over, Maggie's mouth hung open, and… her face was kind of pink? 

"You don't think it's weird?" Maggie asked.

"Not really! Maybe I'm kind of weird, too."

Yep, Maggie's face was definitely pink now. Her mouth opened and closed without finding any words to say.

Luan snickered. "You look like a fish. Guess my jokes really _hooked_ you, huh?"

Maggie glanced away, and Luan was surprised to see the slightest of smiles flit across her face. "I wouldn't go so far as to say _that_."

"It's true! I saw you laughing during my performance."

"You must have had me confused with someone else."

"Well, not laughing, not exactly. But you can't fool me! You do this nose-twitchy thing when you think something is funny and try to keep from smiling."

Maggie looked at her sharply. "No I don't."

"Do too!" Luan grinned. "Look, I'll prove it. I'll just…" She patted her pockets, frowning.

"What?"

"Dang it. I had a really great joke but it requires a prop. I think I must have left my buttfer at home."

Maggie blinked. "What's a buttfer?"

Luan's whole face lit up. "For sitting on, silly!" she exclaimed, waggling her eyebrows. "Oh, oh, see?!" She practically bounced in place as she pointed at Maggie's nose.

Maggie rolled her eyes, pushing Luan's hand aside. But she smiled _again_ , and for a second longer this time. "I take it all back, you're insufferable," she said.

"Oh, you know you love it," Luan said, jokingly.

Maggie suddenly looked down again, going quiet as her face turned red.

A moment of awkward silence passed.

Luan winced, mentally beating herself up for pushing the joke too far and making things weird, and just when she actually started to feel like Maggie might be opening up to her. That's what always happened: she couldn't be serious when someone needed it. 

Luan exhaled. "I do owe you an apology," she said quietly.

"Huh?"

"For, um, the performance earlier."

Maggie looked up, raising an eyebrow. "What about it?"

"Well… trust me, I know when I'm losing an audience. To be honest, I kind of thought this whole party thing was a prank someone was playing on me." She let out a dry laugh. "Go figure, huh?"

"Do you actually know people who would engineer such an elaborate prank?"

Luan shrugged. "My sisters, maybe? For April Fool's Day revenge?"

"It's September."

"Well, yeah. How else are they actually going to surprise me? Trust me, I take April Fool's Day pretty seriously." She frowned, thinking hard. "Or, I dunno, maybe a rival clown, eager to usurp my birthday party empire. Or… oh, oh! It could have been the Fraternal Order of the Golden Caribou."

"What."

Luan waved her hands in exasperation. "You make a few teensy tiny jokes at a charity dinner about some old guys in funny hats and the next thing you know, there's a shadowy cabal secretly following your every move, waiting for the opportunity to seek revenge."

"…Is that a joke? Because it sounds kind of awesome."

" _The point is_ ," Luan said, "the whole play was deliberately bad and long. That was the joke." She leaned forward, head drooping. "You didn't deserve that."

She almost jumped as she felt something touch her. When she looked up, Maggie had moved a little closer, and reached out to rest one hand on her shoulder. Her expression was hard to read, but somehow it was a little reassuring too.

"I liked it," Maggie said. "For real. I don't buy that it was deliberately bad. Long, maybe, but not bad." She shook her head. "I mean, come on, it was obvious that you had to have put a ton of effort into writing a whole play. How long did that even take you?"

Luan bit her lip. "Well, I kind of started with planning on writing something bad, but then… I got a little carried away. That happens sometimes."

"I think this was just the wrong audience," Maggie said. "I bet it'd go over a lot better for people who were into theater and got the references."

"Really?"

"Totally," Maggie said firmly.

Luan let out a gleeful noise, and pulled Maggie into a hug. When she did so, Maggie made a funny 'eep' noise too.

For some reason, Luan noticed something: Maggie smelled like lilacs, which Luan both didn't expect but also found to be really nice. And then she wondered why she had even realized that. And then she realized that it was probably weird to hug someone for this long.

"Thank you, that means a lot," Luan said, letting go suddenly as she blushed a little. "I did wind up working hard on it, but I just didn't know if anyone would like it or not."

"Y-yeah," Maggie said.

"It's just that sometimes things don't end up exactly how you expect them to…"

"Tell me about it," Maggie mumbled. 

"And it gave me an excuse to put off editing this one stupid video of my brother."

"Hm?" Maggie said, tilting her head to the side.

Luan shook her head. "Oh, it's not anything important, I just make videos to put online. A lot of times my siblings will do something funny and I like sharing that with the internet." She let out a sigh. "If only I didn't have to fight my computer every time I tried to get one to come out right."

"I could help," Maggie quickly said, looking at her with an intensity that made Luan a little nervous. "I do computers. What, Premiere or Final Cut Pro? God, I hope you're not using iMovie. You know, I could—" She paused, and when she spoke again, Luan could tell she was trying to act a little less eager. "I mean, I could probably give you a few pointers. If you needed help. Whatever."

Luan bit her lip. Maggie had crossed her arms and was glaring off to the side again now.

But for some reason, Luan thought about having Maggie over to her house and it left her feeling really uncertain. Not because she didn't like Maggie—not at all. And not because she didn't think her family would like her either. But… she suddenly pictured Maggie being thrust into the typical Loud house chaos, and just taking one look and turning around to go home. Luan didn't want that.

…Or if Maggie just wanted a friend, what's to say that she wouldn't get along better with Lynn or Luna or Lucy? For some reason that seemed even worse.

Luan shook her head, trying to shake her thoughts into some kind of order. Why did she care, anyways? Why did she just want Maggie to herself?

"Nevermind, it's a dumb idea." Maggie muttered. "Whatever."

"Actually," Luan said, the words spilling out before she even could think about them. "That sounds really great, but I'd rather go do something fun with you."

Maggie looked at her steadily. "Um. Do you want to… uh. Go see a movie sometime?"

"Sure!" Luan said, feeling a little out of breath as Maggie kept looking right at her. She suddenly worried about whether she was smiling right or if she looked funny, and not the ha-ha funny but the kind of awkward sweaty funny, and… gosh, it was hot in this bounce house. "Are you doing anything next weekend?"

"I am now," Maggie said.

Luan laughed. "Cool," she said. "Yeah."

"Yup. Where at? The Royal Woods Shopping Center?"

"I'm _mall_ for that plan," Luan said, giggling.

"Heh."

Luan's eyes fluttered closed for a second as she grinned. C'mon Luan! You'd think she had never made a friend before. It must have been this whole party thing that had her off-kilter, even though it had turned out fine. Better than fine! She relaxed a little, chuckling at her awkwardness.

When she looked up again, Maggie was smiling.

"Alright," Maggie said. "I should probably go find Alyssa before she thinks I disappeared for forever. But next weekend…" Her cheeks turned pink. "It's a date." And then, with a burst of nervous energy, she leaned over and kissed Luan on the cheek, before getting up and practically skipping out of the bounce castle.

And as Luan Loud sat, frozen completely solid in shock, she suddenly realized that somewhere along the way she had must have misunderstood something, and that her life had abruptly gotten a lot more complicated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me a while to try and figure this out, even though I had parts of it in my head from the beginning. And I'm not sure it worked right. But the perfect is the enemy of the good. Thanks for reading, more to come soon!


End file.
